IMO - we should NEVER EVER get swept by anybody in the SoCon except maybe CoC and certainly not by Furman, Western or Elon. But what may be the worst is losing 2 of 3 to App st AND NC At. Inexcusable. We have to have more than 1 guy who can take the ball and beat those 2 teams more than once in three games. HAVE TO. If we don't, we are worse off than I thought. This is not some ex-player ranting; this is the nitty gritty of this entire thread. The whole point, right there.

I agree that the key is to be competitive....and for the first 25 games or such last yr the Wofford team was looking like it could easily compete in the Socon (a 16-7 record) after a weekend win against Davidson in which Wofford scored an insane amount of runs and it looked like things were clicking...and that was right at the time when 2+ pitchers not including the ones lost before the season went down. It was also the time that the starting SS got hurt, the CF got hurt, the 1b got hurt, the LF got hurt and there were a few other injuries to a LOT of guys on the team esp. within the pitching staff. And that is when they went through the long stretch of losses. But, what is a good sign was that they played through it, and when a few of the guys came back they were able to take games against teams like USC and UNC-G and ga. southern. I think that they could've had a great season could they have stayed healthy. And, this year, if they can stay healthy, they will be competitive and win 25+ games under Traylor.

I have just read with interest the banter between you two ex baseball
players. Maybe one or both of you can answer a question that has been bothering me. Traylor seems hung up on playing all these monster
games. I almost fainted about three years ago when USC beat us 29-2
and he immediately re-arranged the schedule to work in Clemson.
Do we bring in enough revenue to warrant these massacres or is he just
a masochist?

As has been pointed out above, we did whip USC last year 9-8 at home but that outcome is by far the exception rather than the rule. I remember when USC, Clemson, heck Furman for that matter, flatly refused to play us, much less at our place, because we were D-II. Personally, I like us to play those guys: it's a reward for the players to measure up and play literally the best teams in the country; it's good for recruiting to have them on our schedule; and in the very odd chance you sneak a win, it's a big boost. That said, I do NOT expect to win those games and don't care if we do. I would much rather get beat 29-2 on Wednesday and grab 2 of 3 from a SoCon opponent on the weekend. If Traylor could win more SoCon games, I wouldn't care what he schedules out of conference, but right now, it's like laying a big thick rich spread of icing on a dog t***; it may look good at a distance but when you get down to it........

GoldandBlack wrote:I don't want much - a .500 conference record would be great, for once.

I think the Terriers just may surprise some people this year. They get their injured players back and Austin Redwine is a very good pither.

The poster who said it will, as it always does in baseball, come down to pitching, is, of course, correct. If the pitching comes through and the Terriers stay healthy a .500 record in the conference is not impossible.